Another Day

Saturday went much better. He's opening up a little bit more. We're able to get laughs out of him, and he's engaging a little more.

I'm sure it's all been a shock to him - they told us that they didn't tell him his new Mommy and Daddy were coming to get him until we were already there and they were taking him to us. I'm guessing that's because they weren't sure if we'd be too jet-lagged and want a night at the hotel to decompress beforehand. Also, the picture book we sent in his care package was still in pristine condition, so we're wondering if he even saw that before we got there. They certainly didn't let him have it, or it would've been destroyed by now. The camera we sent, though, was fully used up. Can't wait to get that back and get it developed.

Breakfast this morning (Sunday) was a little difficult. He doesn't like to sit still for very long. We're thinking it will be a while before we take him to church! And I don't think we've fully convinced him yet that we're the ones in charge, but I think he's decided he'll keep us.

We went to the Panda Park yesterday. He was more interested in the low-hanging lanterns in the trees than in the Pandas. I think everything is so new to him that the Pandas didn't stand out that much. They are beautiful animals, though.

Got him to go poop and pee in the toilet this morning. He was very proud of himself, and very happy when we put underwear on him afterwards instead of a diaper.

And I've got to say that I am really proud of Jasper. She has taken to big sisterhood like a fish to water. When we left the orphanage, Austin climbed up into his seat in the van, and she sat right down next to him and buckled his seatbelt, before anybody said anything about it. She's been playing with him, keeping an eye on him and chasing after him if he tries to get away from us, and has been very patient with his "grabbiness." I don't know that we could've done this without her.

The lady in the picture below is Susie, our tour guide here in Chengdu.

Figured it Out!

I figured out a way to get to the Blog from here! Yay! It's a slow process, though, so it might not happen real often or be very long posts.

It's early afternoon on Saturday here. We got Austin yesterday afternoon, right after we arrived in Chengdu - we actually went straight to the orphanage from the airport.

After the first day - it's very difficult. The little guy is pretty closed off. It's hard to get him to engage with us. He's got a photobook from the orphanage, and all he wants to do is sit by himself and look through it, or look out the window. He is not, right now, a very happy child.

But we'll keep working on it. It's just going to take some time.

From Hong Kong

We're at the Novotel City Gate hotel in Hong Kong. We fly to Chengdu tomorrow (it's about 11:45pm here right now, but it doesn't feel like it).

Can only get on the internet from a public kiosk here, so not much to say. Will hopefully post more once we get to Chengdu.

Hi, Ms. Wrigg!

This is Jasper's first shout-out to Ms. Wrigg's KB class!

How was the butterfly house?

I wonder if some of the butterflies were missing, because I think they were in my tummy during that first plane ride!

I'm having fun riding the escalator at the airport in Chicago.

Well, this is lovely. Our flight from Sioux Falls to Chicago went okay. Now we're in O'Hare Airport, and our flight from here to Hong Kong has been delayed from 12:16pm to 3:00pm! That means we'll probably miss our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu.

I've got a call in to Bethany and Tempo to see what we can do...

EDIT: Okay, new plan. We'll be getting into Hong Kong about three hours later than expected, so we'll be spending the night in the airport hotel there and continuing on to Chengdu in the morning. Hopefully, we'll still get Austin on Friday like we planned, but we'll have to wait and see...

We received our travel information today. We fly out on February 24th to Chengdu for a couple of days of tourism. We go to Chongqing on the 28th, and that's when we'll get the little guy. We come back home on March 12th.

We've decided to name him Austin. He looks like an Austin, doesn't he?

Coincidentally, February 28th was also "Gotcha Day" for our little girl, five years ago. It's like having two kids with the same birthday!